Allow someone else to manage your mail and calendar

This feature requires you to use a Microsoft Exchange Server 2000, Exchange Server 2003, or Exchange Server 2007 account. Most home and personal accounts do not use Microsoft Exchange. For more information about Microsoft Exchange accounts and how to determine which version of Exchange your account connects to, see the links in the See Also section.

Similar to having an assistant help you manage your incoming paper mail, you can use Microsoft Outlook to allow another person, known as a delegate, to receive and respond to meeting requests or responses and to send e-mail messages on your behalf. You can also grant additional permissions that allow your delegate to read, create, or have full control over items in your Exchange mailbox.

Delegate Access is most commonly used between a manager and his or her assistant, where the assistant (delegate) is responsible for processing the manager's incoming meeting requests or e-mail messages and coordinating the manager's schedule. This article assumes that scenario for explaining the feature; however, Delegate Access can be used between peers.

In this article

About Delegate Access

Two Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 users who both use an Exchange account in the same organization can share their Exchange folders with each other. Folder sharing is one of the collaborative features of Exchange. When you grant access to your Outlook folders to another Outlook user, you can control whether the delegate has read-only or more advanced permissions. By default, items that you mark as private cannot be accessed by anyone else.

Important: You should not rely on the Private feature to prevent other people from accessing the details of your appointments, contacts, or tasks through programmatic methods or by using other e-mail programs.

Delegate Access is a more advanced feature than just sharing your Outlook folders. If you want to grant additional permissions, such as allowing a delegate the ability to create e-mail messages or respond to meeting requests on your behalf, you must use Delegate Access.

Notes:

As the manager, your mail must be delivered to your mailbox on the Exchange server, not to a Personal Folders file (.pst) on your computer.

You and the delegate must use the same version of Office Outlook.

When a delegate has Send on Behalf permissions, the delegate can compose an e-mail message and enter the manager's name in the From box. Recipients of the e-mail message will see the text Delegate Name on behalf of Manager Name next to From.

Note: There is an advanced Exchange feature that allows one or more people to be granted Send As permissions for another Exchange mailbox. This allows someone to send a message as if he or she is the owner of the mailbox. Send As permissions can be used with or without Delegate Access. When Send As permissions are enabled, the recipient will see only the manager's name next to From. An Exchange or Microsoft Windows administrator must configure this option. This scenario is more common where there is a shared Exchange mailbox, such as a staff member who sends e-mail messages to customers from a shared Exchange mailbox and not his or her own Exchange account.

In the Enter the object names to select box, type the display name or user name of the person to whom you want to grant Send As permissions. Multiple users can be added by separating each entry with a semicolon.

Click OK.

In the Permissions list, click Send As, and then select the Allow check box.

Tip: To determine whether a delegate has Exchange Send As permissions or only Outlook Delegate Access Send on Behalf permissions, ask the delegate to create a new message and send it to his or her own e-mail account. Make sure the delegate enters the name for the other mailbox in the From box, for example, the manager's name. When the message is received, if both names appear in the From box along with the text "on behalf of," the delegate has only Outlook Delegate Access Send on Behalf permissions.

As the person granting permission, you determine the level of access that the delegate has to your folders. You can grant a delegate permission to read items in your folders or to read, create, change, and delete items. By default, when you add a delegate, the delegate has full access to your Calendar and Tasks folders. The delegate can also respond to meeting requests on your behalf.

If you want to allow the delegate to see all of the messages in your Inbox, you must grant additional permissions. Instructions for granting permissions are included in the Turn on Delegate Access section.

If you grant someone access to your Exchange folders, that person has access to all items in the folders except those marked private. Instructions for allowing delegates to view private items are included in the Choose items that cannot be viewed by a delegate section. Items in subfolders are not available to the delegate unless you change the sharing permissions on the subfolder or you create a new subfolder. New subfolders inherit the folder access permissions of the parent folder.

Type the name of the person whom you want to designate as your delegate, or search for and then click the name in the search results list.

Note: The delegate must be a person in the Exchange Global Address List.

Click Add, and then click OK.

In the Delegate Permissions dialog box, you can accept the default permission settings or select custom access levels for Exchange folders.

If a delegate needs permission to work with meeting requests and responses only, the default permission settings, including Delegate receives copies of meeting-related messages sent to me, is sufficient. You can leave the Inbox permission setting at None. Meeting requests and responses will go directly to the delegate's Inbox.

Note: By default, the delegate is granted Editor (can read, create, and modify items) permission to your Calendar folder, because after the delegate responds to the meeting on your behalf, the meeting is automatically added to your Calendar folder.

Descriptions of delegate permission levels

Reviewer With this permission, the delegate can read items in the manager's folder.

Author With this permission, the delegate can read and create items, and modify and delete items that you create. For example, a delegate can create task requests and meeting requests directly in the manager's Task or Calendar folder and then send the item on the manager's behalf.

Editor With this permission, the delegate can do everything that an Author has permission to do and additionally can modify and delete the items that the manager created.

To send a message to notify the delegate of the changed permissions, select the Automatically send a message to delegate summarizing these permissions check box.

If you want, select the Delegate can see my private items check box.

Important: This is a global setting that affects all of your Exchange folders, including all Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Notes, and Journal folders. You cannot allow access to private items in only one folder.

Click OK.

Note: Messages sent with Send on Behalf permissions include both the delegate's and manager's names next to From. When a message is sent with Send As permissions, only the manager's name appears. See the About Delegate Access section for more information about Send As permissions.

Click the name of the delegate for whom you want to change permissions, and then click Permissions.

If you want to remove all Delegate Access permissions, click Remove and skip the remainder of these steps.

Change the permissions for any Outlook folder that the delegate has access to.

To send a message to notify the delegate of the changed permissions, select the Automatically send a message to delegate summarizing these permissions check box.

Note: If you want copies of meeting requests and responses that you receive to be sent to a delegate, make sure the delegate is assigned Editor (can read, create, and modify items) permission to your Calendar folder, and then select the Delegate receives copies of meeting-related messages sent to me check box.

Choose items that can't be viewed by a delegate

If you have given permissions to a delegate so that he or she can access your Outlook folders, you can hide personal information in appointments, meetings, tasks, and contacts. Open each personal item, and in the Options group, click Private.

If you want a delegate to see your private items, do the following:

On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Delegates tab.

The Delegates tab is missing

The Delegates tab might be missing because of one or more of the following:

An active connection does not exist between Outlook and Exchange. The Outlook status bar should display Connected to Microsoft Exchange or Online.

Your messages aren't being delivered to your Exchange mailbox. Your e-mail must be delivered to your Exchange mailbox, not to a Personal Folders file (.pst) on your hard disk.

The add-in that contains the Delegate Access feature might not be installed or turned on.

On the Tools menu, click Trust Center, and then click Add-ins.

In the Manage list, click Exchange Client Extensions, and then click Go.

In the list, click the name of the delegate to whom you want to give permission to see your private appointments.

Click Permissions.

Select the Delegate can see my private items check box.

Important: You should not rely on the Private feature to prevent other people from accessing the details of your appointments, contacts, or tasks. To make sure that other people cannot read the items that you marked as private, do not grant them Reviewer (can read items) permission to your Calendar, Contacts, or Tasks folder. A person who is granted Reviewer (can read items) permission to access your folders could use programmatic methods or other e-mail programs to view the details of a private item. Use the Private feature only when you share folders with people whom you trust.